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Intro
After the hassles of actually getting valid tickets to board the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (see previous post), we gratefully found our seats by the windows on the left side of the train (research online had told us that this was the best side for views). We were feeling both relieved and excited about the journey ahead. Mark, looking deep in thought, said, “I wonder if my Dad ever sat in this seat?”
You see, the reason we were so desperate to get on the train was because this was a huge part of our quest to discover more about Mark’s family history and for Mark to walk, quite literally, in his Dad’s footsteps. Mark’s Dad, James Richard Wade (known to everyone as Dick) was born in India in 1924 and, at the age of six, he was sent to St Lawrence School, Lovedale as a boarder. Lovedale is a station on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and Dick used to talk of his journeys to and from school on the train. These exciting train rides in the life of a young boy probably triggered the love of railways (especially timetables!) which remained with Dick throughout his life.
So, here we were, retracing Dick’s steps and seeing the world through his eyes as a boy and a young man. The engines being used today are the same ones used in the 1930s and 40s, as are some of the carriages, so we could, feasibly, be sitting in a seat Dick had sat in!
History
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built by the British in 1908 and runs for 29 miles (46km) from Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam (more commonly known by its colonial name of Ooty). It has the steepest track in Asia with a maximum gradient 0f 8.33%.
Our Experience on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway
It was still dark when we got on the train, but there was a buzz of activity on the station and a palpable sense of excitement as passengers boarded. Food and drink sellers were walking up and down the platform tempting people with coffee, chai, samosas, rice and dal. Everyone was taking photos – of the train, of each other in front of the train, of themselves in front of the train … Spirits were high. We were joined in our compartment by two young Indian couples, the girls dressed in their finest saris and bright jewellery with fresh flowers entwined in their hair, and the boys in pressed skinny jeans and T-shirts. They bought food and drinks, took lots of photos and were clearly on a special day out. They spoke very little English, but we managed to communicate, shared some food, and laughed together.
Finally, with dawn breaking, we were off! The steam engine chugged into life and began to push the five blue carriages slowly up the hill out of Mettupalayam station. The following five and a half hours have to be the best train journey we’ve ever been on – and, at 37p for the two of us, the cheapest, too!
The gradient of the track became steeper almost as soon as we left Mettupalayam behind and we marvelled at the ingenuity of the British engineers (along with the British soldiers and Indian labourers) who carved this railway out of seemingly impossible terrain – and all because they wanted to escape the unbearable heat of an Indian summer!! The views from the window became ever more spectacular as we climbed ever higher. We crossed 250 bridges and went through 16 tunnels, each one eliciting deafening whoops and hollers from our fellow passengers. The air was clear, the sun was bright and everywhere was green and lush, despite three or four years of less than normal rainfall.
We stopped at every station along the way – Kallar, Adderly, Highgrove, Runnymede, Kateri Road, Coonoor, Wellington, Aravankadu, Ketti, Lovedale, Fernhill – and were allowed to get off at most of them, to take photos, buy refreshments and use the facilities. We were impressed at how well-kept the stations were, reminiscent of a bygone era, and reflected again on how fortunate we were to be travelling on the train, especially when the station master at Highgrove told us that it had only started running again a couple of days before, after being closed for a while due to heavy rains and landslides. The weather for us was perfect!
Apart from the stations, the train also stopped at a couple of viewpoints where enterprising individuals had set up camp kitchens to serve up hot snacks. We wondered at our travelling companions’ ability to eat and drink continuously!
When we reached the town of Coonoor, our steam engine was replaced with a diesel one which pulled, rather than pushed, us the rest of the way up to Ooty and ended this memorable journey.
A few days later, we travelled on the train again. This time, we journeyed only back from Ooty to Coonoor. I sincerely hope it won’t be the last time we get to ride on this amazing train!
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You’re experiencing your own ‘Who do you think you are’. This is amazing!